2.

Official figures. Furnished by State Board of Elections as an estimate of registration as of October 1964.

4.

5.

6.

Totals appearing here are exclusive of population of the cities of
Chesapeake, Fairfax and Franklin, created after the 1960 Census.

Registration figures not futnished for City of Richmond.

if the estimated total population as of November 1, 1964, (published by U.S. Census Bureau in news release dated September 8, 1964) were used as a base, this percentage would be 47.9.

Reverend HESBURGH. We appreciate your having made them a part of the record, Mr. Chairman.

INADEQUACY OF EXISTING REMEDIES

Since the Commission first recommended Federal registrars and abolition of literacy tests in 1959, Congress has passed two civil rights acts strengthening the powers of the Department of Justice to prevent discrimination by means of lawsuits.

Despite vigorous prosecution under these acts, the record of achievement has not been impressive. Since 1960, for example, the Department of Justice has brought 16 lawsuits against registrars in Mississippi. After 5 years of great effort, only three final decrees have been obtained and not more than a few thousand Negroes have been registered pursuant to these decrees. In several cases contempt proceedings have been required to achieve compliance by recalcitrant registrars.

Clearly in Mississippi, the litigation remedy remains inadequate. The Commission has prepared statistics on registration principally for the 11 Southern States. These statistics reflect two significant facts: first, that adequate progress has not been made in increasing the number of registered Negro voters since the enactment of the first Civil Rights Act in 1957, and second, that States in which the literacy test would be suspended under H.R. 6400 also have the lowest percentages of voting age Negroes registered to vote. We would like to submit these statistics for the benefit of the committee.

ENDORSEMENT OF H.R. 6400

The Commission wholeheartedly endorses the elimination of literacy tests and the appointment of Federal registrars as provided in H.R. 6400. For the past 6 years we have recommended such legislation. We have done so in the belief that nothing less will suffice to root out the evil of discrimination in voting.

The testimony received at the Commission's recent hearing in Jackson, Miss., and the events of the past several months in Selma, Ala., have only served to strengthen this view.

It may be appropriate here for the Commission to state briefly the basis for its view that the elimination of literacy tests and the appointment of registrars are, in certain localities, essential to enforce the guarantees of the 15th amendment.

ABOLITION OF LITERACY TESTS

The Commission has repeatedly urged the abolition or drastic restriction of so-called literacy tests at least in States where such tests have been used to prevent Negro registration.

H.R. 6400 would eliminate such tests in States where less than 50 percent of the voting age population has registered or voted in the fast presidential election.

According to our statistics, these criteria would serve the desired function of eliminating the test in those States where the Commission has found that it was used for discriminatory purposes. While other

States or areas not discriminating might be included, they may obtain relief under the provisions of the bill.

Since 1958, when the Commission began its study of the use of literacy tests, it has received abundant evidence that in certain States they have been used as instruments of discrimination. In Alabama in 1959, in Louisiana in 1961, and in Mississippi in 1965, the Commission found that the constitutional interpretation tests were being applied discriminatorily for the purpose of preventing Negro registration.

For example, under Mississippi law, an applicant for registration must read and interpret any one of 286 sections of the Mississippi constitution. Negro witnesses from one county testified at the recent Commission hearing that the registrar gave them extremely difficult sections of the constitution to interpret. A good example is section 111 which provides:

The power to tax corporations and their property shall never be surrendered or abridged by any contract or grant to which the State or any political subdivision thereof may be a party, except that the legislature may grant exemption from taxation in the encouragement of manufactures and other new enterprises of public utility extending for a period of not exceeding 5 years, the time of such exemptions to commence from the date of charter, if to a corporation; and if to an individual enterprise, then from the commencement of work; but when the legislature grants such exemptions for a period of 5 years or less, it shall be done by general laws, which shall distinctly enumerate the classes of manufactures and other new enterprises of public utility entitled to such exemptions, and shall prescribe the mode and manner in which the right to such exemptions shall be determined.

Mr. Chairman, I would hate to have to interpret that before you as certificating my right to register and vote.

The CHAIRMAN. I would not know how to interpret it either. Reverend HESBURGH. The records of the same registrar indicated, on the other hand, that most white applicants received substantially easier sections. A favorite was section 35, which provides:

The Senate shall consist of members chosen every 4 years by the qualified electors of the several districts.

There was discrimination not only in choosing the test sections but also in passing upon the answers.

For example, in interpreting section 35, quoted above, one white applicant wrote, "equible wrights," and was passed. Another wrote, "the government is for the people and by the people" and was passed. A third wrote, "Elect every four years," and was passed.

As a result of these and other techniques of discriminatiton the registrar passed all 150 white applicants whose records were examined by the Commission and failed all but 9 of 128 Negro applicants.

This type of gross discrimination is made possible by the unfettered discretion characteristically given to registrars in the administration of these tests. This discretion, the Commission's experience plainly shows, has been used to block Negro registration. The Commission's hearing in Mississippi demonstrated that the insidious practices of 1959, when the Commission first recommended abolition for the literacy test, are still being continued in 1965.

Even if these literacy tests were fairly administered (which they are not) and fairly related to literacy (which they are not), they would still be inherently unfair to the Negro population of the States